Bicycle bomb kills police recruit in Kabul

The wounded in the attack included both police and civilian employees [AFP]

A Taliban suicide bomber riding a bicycle has attacked a bus carrying police recruits in the east of the Afghan capital Kabul, killing two people and wounding 20 others.

The attacker targeted the bus as it left a police training centre on the Jalalabad road on Sunday.

"We have two people killed - a policeman and a civilian," Hashmat Stanikzai, a Kabul city police spokesman, said.

The wounded included 14 passengers on the bus, including both police and civilian employees. Six civilian bystanders were also wounded.

The bus was left at the side of the road with its chassis badly damaged and most of its windows broken.

Taliban claims responsibility

The Taliban, which has been fighting the US-backed government since 2001, claimed responsibility for the attack.

"One of our mujahideen fighters targeted a police bus belonging to the police training centre," Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, said. "As a result of this attack, a number of policemen and officers were killed and wounded."

Kabul has seen a drop in attacks after a series of high-profile strikes in the first half of last year, with the intelligence agency claiming to have foiled several plots involving truck bombs and suicide gunmen. A series of attacks in 2013 targeted foreign compounds, the Supreme Court, the airport and the presidential palace in the city.

The Jalalabad road, which is a main route out of the city and passes a series of government compounds and military facilities, has been a regular scene of strikes in recent years.

NATO forces are withdrawing from Afghanistan after more than a decade of fighting the Taliban, but negotiations have stalled on a security accord that would allow some US and NATO troops to stay after 2014.